


His Knight

by SuperCerulean



Category: Batman: Arkham (Video Games), Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 14:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16683331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperCerulean/pseuds/SuperCerulean
Summary: You’re an intern at Arkham Asylum as a psychology student and one day while running errands, you accidentally come across something that stomps your heart into the dirt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s something I thought of while I was rewatching Justice League. The read more option on mobile hasn’t been working so I’ll post this without the option. When it gets fixed, I’ll make sure to add a read more option. (Originally posted to my tumblr)

Arkham Asylum was the one place that no one wanted to intern at. Gotham’s worst criminals were often sent there and Batman came in and out almost every night. Still, you would have been lyin if you said you weren’t a little curious. Originally, you weren’t planning on choosing it as the location for your mid term project. It may have been intriguing, but you weren’t trying to chase that curiosity to your grave. Unfortunately, you were one of the last people to sign up, so everything was either filled up or too far of a drive to make daily. You were hesitant but you ended up still signing up to intern at Arkham. It would only be for a week and most of the scariest criminals like Joker were still on the loose. Even if they did end up being caught while you interned, it usually took a long time for them to orchestrate an escape. Hopefully while you were there, nothing bad would happen. 

Your first three days went off without a hitch. As it happens, the Arkham staff kept interns as far away from the actual criminals as possible. Of the few patients you had seen, none had a particularly dangerous history and were mostly harmless. Most of your time was spent running documents about the Asylum and relaying messages between staff members. Once you were more acquainted, the later half of the internship gave you more freedom. Before, there had always been another staff member or security guard to escort you and prevent you from getting lost around the massive facility. When it got a bit busier and you became accustomed to the layout of the building, you were allowed to find your way around on your own. 

The work you were given was busy work for sure, but the staff was great about giving you information and stories between runs that would benefit your essay. Still, running up and down the halls was extremely riring. It became frustrating very early on because many of the halls were blocked off or abandoned so routes were longer than they needed to be. 

One day, while running an errand, you found a shortcut through one of the abandoned wings. It cut your travel time by about half and wasn’t terribly dangerous soyou began heading through it’s derelict halls every time you needed to take that route. 

The path was definitely creepy as the lighting was abysmal at best and there were all kinds of creaks and creatures running amuck. They were usually out of your range, though, so you could power through it with a flashlight and willpower. It wasn’t until your last day as an intern that the creepiness finally caught up to you. 

One of the psychologists had asked you to deliver a stack of paperwork to their colleague on the other side of the asylum. You despised going through the abandoned wing during the night shift but your feet were killing you and the need to cut the ten minute walk in half outweighed your reservations. 

Armed with your cell phone’s flashlight, you were able to walk a majority of the path without incident until suddenly a shrill squeak on the ground in front of you caught your attention. Immediately, the light from your phone was casted angled to the source of the noise. The light casted a white glow at the dirty broken tiles on the ground in front of you and illuminated patches of brown and black fur. A rat. Except it wasn’t just one rat. There were about four or five of them poking the air with their noses and flicking their bare tails about. 

At the motion of your flashlight, the rats scattered, running in every direction with scattering feet and panicked screeching. As soon as you felt the furry backs of one of them brush past your leg, you took off running with a squeak of your own. The documents were dropped from your hands the moment you saw the rats and were left scattered on the floor where you had been standing. 

In hindsight, you probably over reacted when you screamed and ran, but it was too late to ponder over it now. Somehow, your legs took you deeper into the building instead of out of it. Now you were in an unfamiliar corridor with even less lighting than the previous one. Sighing, you turned back towards the direction you had run from, eternally grateful you hadn’t dropped your phone with the stack of documents. Hopefully you would be able to make it back before the staff sent out a search party for you or the rats came back to drag you into their evil rat kingdom. A shiver ran down your spine at the thought. 

Most of the corridor was a straight shot back to where you’d run from but it eventually forked in opposite directions. You couldn’t remember which one you had run in from during your panicked sprint, so you had to pause to figure out which way you should go. 

As you pondered over the direction to go down, you heard a sound coming from the left side of the hall. Usually, sound was the way you found your way out of the wing anyway, so you took that as a sign that it was the right direction to go down. 

When you finally reached the end of the hallway, you were halted by a pair of rusted metal doors with wired glass windows taking up the top halves of them. Hints of yellow and orange light snuck through the clouded windows, but it wasn’t like the harsh lighting for the rest of the asylum. That was your first clue that you were in the wrong place. 

Slowing to a stop, you peeked through the glass. Through the door was a room lit entirely by candles that lined the cracked tile of the floor. The first thing your eyes picked up on were the two figures near the center of the room. One was unmoving, stretched tall and hanging from some kind of hook on the ceiling with a figure you assumed was male. The other stalked slow circles around him, lanky limbs coated in purple and green hair flashing in the dim lighting. You didn’t need to hear his laughter to know who he was. The sound only added to the terror in your heart. You were completely frozen in place as you watched him with wide eyes. 

You were trembling in fear before you knew it as the clown continued his fit of laughter. The Joker was someone everybody knew and hoped to never meet. His grin fueled coutless nightmares. His laughter held the weight of a gunshot. His hands were guilty of hundreds, maybe even thousands of murders. He was one of the most dangerous and terrifying criminals in Gotham and here you were, separated only by the metal of the door. 

FInally, your eyes were drawn to the second figure in the room as he fell to the ground in a heavy heap. Joker pocketed some kind of device that you guessed operated the hook mechanism. You saw the flash of a camera near the corner of the room and you felt your heart clench a little once you saw what the second guy was wearing. It was Robin. Batman’s partner and protege. Another big name in Gotham that you only knew from stories. Joker was rambling on about something but you weren’t listening. How did he manage to capture Robin? DId Batman know he was here? How long had he been here? 

You wanted to think it was just a fluke and that Batman was already on his way to save the younger man, but you could tell just by looking at him that he’d been there for a long time. His suit was dirtied and covered in dried blood. There were bruises all along the exposed bits of his face where his mask would have been. Even without it, you couldn’t tell who he was. It didn’t matter, though. Nobody deserved this. The thought of him being here alone with that sadistic maniac made bile rise in the back of your throat. 

You had to do something. 

But what could you do? If Joker could keep Robin, who was not only bigger and more muscular than him, but also had training directly from Batman, what chance did you stand? Not only that, but Robin was barely able to hold himself up. If you did manage to land any hits on Joker, he couldn’t help you. You weren’t even sure if you could support his weight on your own, especially with Joker chasing after you. Maybe you could get to Batman somehow. Someone at Arkham had to have a way to contact him. If you managed to get him, he would have Joker locked up in minutes. All you had to do was-

“No! No, please!”

Your train of thought flew off the fucking rails. Your eyes snapped into focus in front of you and the air in your lungs was forced out with the weight of a semi truck. You knew his voice. You didn’t even have to think about it to know who it was. Jason. Your Jason. The Jason that disappeared months ago. The Jason that you spent every day worrying about. The Jason that was Robin. 

Any attempt you made to breathe again was cut short by panic and the pounding of your heart in your chest. Jason was crawling away from you. almost completely out of the light of the candles and the Joker was trailing after him. Your eyes caught the bright yellow glow of metal in Joker’s hands and this time your legs gave out. You could still hear Jason’s pleas through the door. He sounded desperate. The sound made you want to curl up into a ball and shove something hard and sharp into your eardrums. You weren’t sure when you started crying, but your sobs only worsened your hyperventilating. You’d never felt panic like this before. You didn’t think anything could feel as awful as this felt. Then you heard him scream.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You’re an intern at Arkham Asylum as a psychology student and one day while running errands, you accidentally come across something that stomps your heart into the dirt. (Originally posted to my tumblr)

You were running for what felt like forever. As soon as Jason’s screams reached your ears, you had to leave. You had to help him somehow. Your legs were burning all over from the speed you were forcing them to propel you at. You still couldn’t find your way out of the damned wing and now that you knew Jason was there, you really needed to hurry and find your way out. 

It took a few more wrong turns before you finally found a way into the operating sections of the Asylum. Somehow you ended up near the prisoner transport area. The one you weren’t really supposed to be in. Still, you had to find a way to get help for Jason so you didn’t give a damn about getting yelled at for it. The thought of him having to be alone with the Joker for any longer made your skin crawl. You’d run through Killer Croc’s containment cell if it meant you’d get Jason away from that maniac. You’d do anything. 

When you finally made caught sight of other people, you slowed to a stop. You were panting and disheveled, but it seemed no one payed you any mind. They were all rushing about the hall with clip boards and such. There were even armored guards moving through the halls in a cluster. They weren’t typically present unless particularly dangerous patient was nearby. There was a light flutter of hope in your heart at the sight of them. Did they know Joker was here? Maybe they were already going after him and maybe they would save Jason. 

Your hopes were dashed to smithereens when you saw who they were really monitoring. He was on one of Arkham’s rolling stretchers that they used for the more dangerous inmates. He was snarling and making angry threats and struggling against his constraints, but there was no way he was getting out of them. You should have run after them and told the guards what was happening, but by the time you thought of this, they were already going down the elevator. All that was left was another intern that you’d seen a few times in pasing. Your eyes were drawn not to them, but to what they were holding. Your racing heart stuttered at the sight and you knew as soon as you saw it what you were going to do. 

The Joker was taking pictures of Jason when you made it back to the room he was being held in. Joker had gotten him back onto the chain hanging from the ceiling and he dangled from it without much struggle. The flashing of the camera shocked your eyes after being in the dark hallways for so long, but they gave the room sudden bursts of light that fully illuminated everything. You saw the results of the brand Joker had used on Jason a few times when the light flashed. You didn’t think he could look worse from before but clearly you were wrong. The entire left side of his face was red, bloodied and swollen. It was hard to make out, but you eventually realized what it was that had been burned into his skin. The letter J. 

Any doubts you had to go through with your plan dissolved. You didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care what it would cost you, what would happen to you if you went through with it, or who it would affect. You were beyond reason. Just looking at his sickly grin and his green hair fueled the anger and hatred you felt like gasoline to a fire. You were gonna do it no matter what. 

As soon as you saw the Joker preparing to leave, you hid. There was a small expanse between the window of the doors and the walls so you were able to hide behind them out of view. Without being able to see what was happening, you had to wait and rely on your hearing to know when he was nearby. Your plan rested firmly in your hands, warmed by the tightness of your grip and your rushing blood. The sound of the locks on the door clicking reverberated in your eardrums like fireworks and your hands tightened in front of you. As soon as the door was open and your eyes caught that flash of purple you were reacting. 

The gunshots were louder than you could have ever prepared for. You’d heard them before but never this close up. The sound assaulted your ears, but you were still pulling the trigger. All logic and thought were gone now and you could only repeat the movement of your fingers on the underside of the gun. You shot until there were no more bullets to shoot and the room was bathed in silence again. You didn’t even know where you shot him, but it must have been fatal. There wasn’t a single sound that came from him. Not a laugh or even a chuckle. He was dead. He hadn’t even had time to close his eyes. Looking at him broke you out of your trance. He was covered in blood and even more of it spilled onto the ground around you. You didn’t realize you were crying until you saw a tear drop onto the ground in front of you. You sat trembling in silence for a long time before you heard Jason speak. 

“Y-Y/N?” You dropped the gun as soon as you heard him say your name. You were sobbing before you even reached him. You couldn’t even speak you were so overwhelmed with emotions. You were reaching above him, trying fruitlessly to free him from the contraption he was hanging from. He was quiet, looking at your face with a stupefied expression. Suddenly, you remembered the button Joker had used to let him go the first time. 

You scrambled over to his body, feeling utter disgust as you rummaged through his blood soaked suit pockets. You found it soon after and picked it up with slick hands. The keys were located in a pocket nearby and you made sure to take those too. You pushed the button immediately and heard Jason grunt as he fell to the ground roughly and you were dropping the button and running over to him again instantly. You helped him into a sitting position with great effort. He was even heavier than you’d expected. He could barely hold him self up and ended up half lying in your lap. HIs hands were still bound in front of him so you reached over him to go through the set of keys to find out which one would work. It was then that he found his voice again. 

“How did you find me?” he asked. His voice sounded so weak and broken that you had to force yourself to breathe. He paused, his eyes still focused on your face. “Batman couldn’t even find me.” 

You finally managed to get the restraints off of his wrists and you threw them as far as you could across the room. You tried to lift Jason as best you could, but was almost impossible. 

“I intern here for my psychology class. I came down here on an errand.” you answered, your voice strained as you worked to lift him up. Jason finally began to help you and you were able to get him to stand. He was leaning heavily on your shoulder and you had his arm draped around your neck. He could walk a little, but not very well. You were halfway dragging through the broken halls. You had to hold your phone’s flashlight in the hand wrapped around Jason’s torso so the light was even worse than before. Still, it was enough to see where you were going. There was an exit somewhere around the wing that led out near the parking lot. You passed by it on your way out the first time so you had a vague idea of where it was. You just had to get there. 

“…Please tell me you’re real,” he whispered. You paused, wondering how much more your heart could break for him. You took the hand that was holding his arm around your shoulder and used it to pace your hand on his cheek. 

“I promise you, this is real. I’m getting you out of here.” Jason was quiet for a few breaths before he nodded. You returned your hand to his arm and dragged him through the halls with whatever strength you could muster. By some kind of miracle, you were able to find your way to the exit. The door was boarded up so you had to set Jason up to lean against the wall of the corridor while you worked on opening it. The barricades were very weak, likely done more for show than to actually operate so you were able to pry them off quite easily. You were back to assisting Jason through the door pretty quickly. 

The two of you stumbled through the exit, almost falling down the concrete stairs in front of it. You managed to catch yourself before you lost your footing too bad and you caught Jason with both of your arms around his torso. He whimpered, his head dipping with a pained expression. You immediately loosened you grip, making a mental note to be careful around that area. 

It was raining of course as it almost always was in Gotham. You would have normally been upset to be soaked and to have your hair ruined, but now you didn’t spare a single thought towards it. You caught him in the stance you’d had him in before, whispering calming words as you looked for your car. It was parked towards the back of the lot so you had to walk a little bit to reach it. When you finally did, you yanked your keys out of your pocket and unlocked the doors. You opened the back seat for Jason and did your best to help him into the seats without hurting him. It seemed that every move he made caused some sort of pain around his body as his face was set in a tense expression and he moved with sluggish caution. Your eyes darted around the parking lot as he got in and you were glad that no one was around to question you. The hardest part was over now and all you needed to do was get Jason help. 

As soon as he was fully in the back, you closed the door and hurried into the driver’s seat. Your hands fumbled a bit with the keys, but you were quick to get them into the ignition. You were then backing out of the parking lot and swinging your car around towards the exit of the Asylum. 

“I need to get you to a hospital,” You said. Your eyes met Jason’s through the rear view mirror and he groaned, shaking his head. 

“No, hospital,” he grunted. 

“What do you mean no hospital? You can Barely walk, Jason. You at least need a doctor or something.” You were finally on the streets of Gotham again. There weren’t as many cars on the road because of the time, so you drove a little less carefully than you normally would have. 

“I’ll be fine, I just need to rest. I can fix myself up.” You stared at him incredulously, almost forgetting to pay attention to the road. 

“This isn’t just a cut or a bad sprain, you need medicine. X-rays, shit to make sure you don’t fucking die,” You said, tone rising. Just looking at the skin you could see told you he needed serious medical attention. 

“I can’t go to a hospital like this,” he stated. He was looking at you with pleading eyes that sliced your anger to bits. “I just need one night. Just with you. Please?” 

You wanted to say no and to just take him to the hospital. Secret identity be damned, you wanted him to be safe. The only thing that made you reconsider was the waver in his voice. You could tell it wasn’t his secret identity keeping him from going to the hospital. Whatever happened to him at Arkham wasn’t just physical. You could tell he was broken in some way. There was nothing a doctor could do to fix that. So against your better judgement, you agreed and changed course to your apartment. All he asked for was one night. You could at least give him that.


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You’re an intern at Arkham Asylum as a psychology student and one day while running errands, you accidentally come across something that stomps your heart into the dirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a quick note, the next part after this will be the final one. I was thinking about maybe making it a smut, but I’m not entirely sure yet. What do you guys think? (Originally posted to my tumblr)

The night Jason came back was hard. You could tell he was in pain, but he didn’t want to talk about it. He was quieter than you’d ever seen him, lost in thought or staring off into space. The first thing he wanted to do when he got in was to take off his costume. There were a few pieces of clothing that he’d either left or you’d stolen from him left at your house so you started up a warm shower and gave him the clothes. He was still moving as if he was in pain, but he said he would be fine on his own, so you left him to it. 

While he was showering, you were left to your own thoughts. The weight of what you did was finally sinking in. You killed somebody. He was a deranged criminal sure, but he was still alive. Now he wasn’t and it was because of you. When you looked at your hands, you realized that there was still blood covering them. Your stomach became uneasy at the sight and you rushed to the kitchen sink. 

You didn’t vomit like you thought you were going to, but you didn’t leave. You turned the water on, as hot as it would go, and coated your hands in soap. You scrubbed them, hard and frantic under the heat of the water. There was dried blood everywhere on your hands. Even some under your nails. Looking at it now, you were overcome with the need to get it off. The water scalded your skin, but you didn’t care. You wanted it off. You scrubbed your hands until you felt like you’d scrubbed through your skin and you still felt dirty. You were crying again. This time quietly, with tears stinging your eyes and dropping onto your hands. Your emotions were so all over the place now that the adrenaline had worn off that you weren’t even sure what was making you cry. It was all just too much. 

You heard the water to the shower shut off so you made your way out of the kitchen. You quickly retrieved whatever medical supplies you had in your house and brought it to living room, rubbing the tears from your eyes as you went. When you finally sat back down onto the couch, the door to your bathroom opened and Jason reappeared a few moments later. 

“I just left my suit in the bathroom,” he mumbled. You nodded and motioned for him to come and sit next to you. He did so, looking a lot better than he had when you first brought him in. When he sat down, he was close enough for you to see the redness around his eyes and nose. You hadn’t even thought that he didn’t want you to help him in the shower because he was crying. You wanted to say something, but you refrained. You stuck to doing what you could to the wounds you could see. 

The last thing you did was bandage his cheek. You had some medicine to help soothe the burn so you applied that, then a square bandage onto the area. You made sure to be as tentative with your touch as possible. It had happened so recently that you knew the area had to be sensitive. You were focused on being gentle so you were a bit startled when you felt his hand touch your wrist. 

“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” You said quickly. Jason shook his head. 

“No, I just…Haven’t felt anything like this in a while,” he said. His head fell again and you worried you did something wrong. You expected him to push your hand away, but instead he held it tighter. You noticed that he was shaking and began to panic again. “I can still hear him laughing.” 

“Jason…” You felt a drop of wetness fall onto your knee where he was hunched over and you couldn’t hold yourself back anymore. You thought he needed space, but now all you could do was wrap him in an embrace. You brought your arms around his neck, moving so you were almost sitting in his lap. His arms immediately followed yours, wrapping around you as he buried his face into your shoulder. He held you so tightly that you were certain it hurt the bruises along his torso, but he didn’t falter. He held you like were the only thing keeping him from falling apart and you very well might have been 

He was like that for weeks after you found him. He absolutely refused to go to any hospital and threatened to run and hide somewhere if you brought in a doctor. It was like he didn’t want anyone to know he was back. He didn’t even want you to tell his family that you’d found him. He didn’t leave your apartment much either aside from short visits to your balcony. Most of the time, you found him sitting and just…thinking.

It was scary looking after him when he was like this. More than a few times a day, you would find yourself having to embrace him or soothe him after nightmares. He didn’t sleep often, but when he did it was in short burts and filled with nightmares. He said it was better when you were there, but it didn’t seem to be much of an improvement. The only thing occupying your mind was helping him, but you had no idea what to do. It took a while, but one day you were finally able to gather up the courage to talk to him about it. Letting your thoughts fester in the back of your mind was doing neither of you any good so you decided to do something about it. 

After a quick run to get dinner for the two of you, Jason was still sitting in the same spot on the couch he had been when you’d left. He hadn’t even heard you come in. Whatever it was that he was thinking about, it consumed him day and night. Like it was slowly eating away at him. It was too awful just to watch. Instead, you set the bags of food down onto your counter and joined him on the couch. He finally looked up when you sat down beside him, looking surprised. 

“Hey, I didn’t hear you come in,” he said. 

“I noticed. It seems like you were thinking pretty hard about something,” You said hesitantly. Idley, you trailed your hand down his forearm until it captured his. He watched your movements before you cleared your throat and pushed back the nervousness in your heart. “Did…did you want to talk about it?” 

Jason’s eyes remained on where his hand entwined with yours. He traced lazy circles with his thumb and you thought that he wasn’t planning on answering. When you were about to apologize for prying, he finally spoke up again. 

“I just…keep thinking about what happened and how you found me,” he said. “I was always waiting for someone to find me. I expected Batman to within hours. Then it was days, weeks, months. When Joker showed me the picture of that new Robin I lost all hope that I’d ever get out. I never once expected that you would be the one to find me.” He paused, looking up and taking a deep breath. His eyes fell back to yours and you could tell they were clouded over with tears again.

“And you…you killed him. You shouldn’t have had to be the one to do that, but you did. You’ve never had an ounce of training yet you still did it and it just makes me so angry. Joker took me to get back at Batman. He was supposed to be there for me. I trusted him and- and he gave up on me. Out of anyone in the world, I thought he would be able to find me. But he didn’t and I can’t even describe how angry that makes me. I don’t ever think I’ve held this much anger over something. All I want to do is be here with you and to just forget, but I just can’t.” 

“I’m sorry,” You said once he finished speaking. “I’m sorry you were stuck there for so long and I wish none of this had to happen to you. I can’t even imagine what this is like for you. I wish there was more I could do to make it better, but I don’t know what to do.” Jason gave you a small smile before he dragged you closer. 

“You’ve already done more than I could have expected you to. Right now, this is enough,” he said, hugging you into his chest. “I just need to figure out where I go from here.”

“Alright…but don’t let everything build up for too long. If your thoughts get to be too much, talk to me,” you said. Jason nodded again, placing a sweet kiss onto the top of your head. For just a moment, it felt like everything might just be alright.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You’re an intern at Arkham Asylum as a psychology student and one day while running errands, you accidentally come across something that stomps your heart into the dirt. (Originally posted to my tumblr)

After a while, living with Jason became your new normal. It was easy to tell that he was still having a hard time, but you were just happy to know that he was safe. You went to work and your classes often during the day but Jason was always there when you got back. Even when you both just did your own thing around the apartment without saying much to each other, it was comforting to know he was around. When you came home and found him leaning against the kitchen counter you could tell something was off. He had his arms crossed over his chest and this expression that looked like he was dreading something. 

“Um…Is there something you needed?” You asked cautiously. 

“No, but I need to talk to you.” He had a serious, almost sad hint to his voice. Immediately nervousness surged into your thoughts. You placed your backpack on the floor beside the door and shut it, making sure to turn the locks behind you. Once that was done, you joined Jason in the kitchen. Your movements were sluggish as you went, the sudden shift in atmosphere chilling your bones.

“What’s up?” 

“….I’m thinking about leaving soon,” he said, sounding like he had to force the words to leave his mouth. Whatever you were expecting him to say, that certainly was not it. He must have sensed your shock and he quickly spoke before your thoughts could go anywhere negative. “It’s not because of anything you did.” 

“Oh.” That was the only thing you really could say. You were taken so far off guard by his words that you had to take a moment to recuperate. When you did, you found your voice and continued. “Why do you want to leave?”

“It’s not that I want to. I just…I don’t think I can get over what happened until I deal with all of this hatred. I’ve been wrestling with it all this time and I need to do something to find some kind of closure.” 

You were relieved that he wasn’t upset with you, but the feeling of your heart breaking wasn’t easy to ignore. It was selfish but you wanted him to stay. He’d only just come back into your life and now he was leaving again. You couldn’t be mad at him though. It was painfully obvious that he hated leaving you as much as you hated having to let him go. Knowing this, you forced yourself to remain neutral. No matter how much it hurt, you had to let this happen. You could curse the world later, but right now Jason was looking at you like he would give it all up just to stay with you and you couldn’t let him do that. 

“Does…it have to do with Batman?” You breathed. Instantly, you could tell you were right. Just mentioning his name made Jason tense up and his eyebrows furrow. He nodded, his hair brushing against his forehead as he did. His teal eyes met yours again, this time with a fire behind them shadowed by the fringe of his hair.

“Everytime I even think about him all I can see is red,” He explained. He even sounded different when he talked about his former mentor. It was like you could feel the hatred in the air as he spoke and it was chilling. Then as quickly as it had shifted before, his voice softened. “I don’t want to have to be like this around you, but I don’t know if I can just move on.” 

“If you need to go away to figure all of this out, then I think you should,” you said, putting all of your will into sounding supportive. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

“I don’t know…” he sighed. “Probably fo a long time.” You nodded, biting at your lip. When you felt like you might break, you looked at the scarred J on his cheek. It reminded you of how much pain he’d gone through and was still going through. A physical scar that held the weight of every emotional scar behind it. Having that weigh down on you day and night was tiring and you knew from the shadows under his eyes that it was taking its toll on him. It got worse with every passing day and it was a wonder that he hadn’t already cracked. He was right. He had to do something about it. 

Jason’s hands found your arms, gently pulling you forward. One of his hands moved to rest on your cheek while the other remained on your forearm. He leaned down so that his forehead touched yours before he spoke in a soft whisper. 

“No matter what happens or how long I’m away, I swear I will come back to you.” The intensity in his eyes as they looked at you was fierce and full of emotion. “Even if my world is blazed in hatred and fury, you’ll always be the one thing that brings me back.” 

At the time, you were unaware of the weight his words held. The truth behind them was completely masked by the loving air in his voice so there was no way you could have predicted what he was planning. No way to know how far he would go in search of retribution. You wouldn’t know until much later when all you could do was watch him spiral into darkness, waiting to reach through and bring him back again.


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You’re an intern at Arkham Asylum as a psychology student and one day while running errands, you accidentally come across something that stomps your heart into the dirt. (Originally posted to my tumblr)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m posting this via my phone so I’ll have to add the links to the other parts in later. I hope you all enjoy this!! Thank you so much for reading this story as well as any of my other ones. It’s so awesome to see all of this positive feedback! ❤❤❤

You knew that it was Jason before you even got the call. It took you a while; the commotion of evacuating Gotham and the lack of press made it difficult to know what was going on. Initially, the only knews you’d gotten was that Scarecrow was threatening to use a chemical weapon on Gotham. Then bits and pieces of information came in throughout the night. Clips and pictures of armed soldiers and tanks roaming the streets, scattered messages from the police force, even video clips uploaded by some of the criminals making a playground out of the city. When word of the Arkham Knight finally reached the evacuated citizens, you knew it was Jason. The blurry pictures that eventually surfaced only confirmed your suspicions. He was covered head to toe in armor but you knew it was him. Suddenly, his disappearance made sense and knowing what he’d done with that time choked you with emotion. 

Then you got the call. 

It was extremely late at night, but nobody was sleeping. Everyone was focused on the war going on in Gotham. They had most people evacuated to Metropolis because of its proximity so you could see some of what was going on. Giant plants stretching into the skyline, clouds of fear toxin, and even helicopters transporting people and weapons across the city. You knew it was bad, but not how bad until your phone rang. 

The number was unknown so you were tempted not to answer. Against your normal judgement, you did. You took your phone to the nearest bathroom away from the chaos of the shelters the people of Gotham were stuck in. You locked the door behind you just as you answered, saying a cautious greeting into the speaker. There was heavy breathing coming from the other end of the line before you heard him. 

“I messed up, Y/N,” he said. Jason’s voice was shaky and he sounded like he was out of breath. You knew immediately what he was referring to, but somewhere in your mind you still needed to hear him say it. 

“…Please tell me you’re not the one leading that army,” you whispered. 

“I’m sorry. I thought I could make it like this. I really thought killing him would fix everything.” Hearing him admit that it was him somehow made everything more real. You had to support yourself against the line of sinks to keep from getting dizzy. Jason really was the reason everyone had to be forced out of the city. He did all of this, planned it out for months and now that it was all said and done, he was finally realizing what his revenge would cost.

“Jason, you joined forces with scarecrow. I…I know you’re angry but this was way too far. Innocent people died tonight.” 

“I know,“ he said, voice cracking. "I didn’t mean for that to happen. I did so many awful things tonight. I just wanted the pain to go away.” 

“It will, but not like this.”

You heard him take a deep breath and it reminded you to do the same. You weren’t even sure how long you had been holding it in. “I should have just stayed with you. Everything is worse than it was before.” 

“Where are you now?” you asked. There seemed to be some kind of commotion going on in the other room, but you ignored it for the time being. You could figure that out after you were done talking to Jason.

“I’m at a safe house. I just confronted him and…all I could think to do was run away. I’m so confused, I don’t know what to do.” 

“What happened with scarecrow?”

“He’s still out there. I think he’s planning something. He’s still after Batman.” 

You paused, considering if you should say what was on your tongue. You hesitated because you knew he was calling you for some kind of comfort but what you wanted to say was more like the opposite. In the end, you decided to say what needed to be said. He needed to pick himself back up instead of hiding out while his plans destroyed the city.

“Jason you have to make this right somehow,” you said. “You brought Scarecrow into this and you gave him everything he needed to take over the city. Whatever happened with you and Batman doesn’t matter. You don’t need to forgive him, but you need to fix this.” 

Jason didn’t speak for a moment, likely thinking about what you said. You heard some kind of typing and beeping before he spoke again. “…you’re right. I need to fix this.”

You breathed a sigh of relief. It was still pretty much impossible to know what was going on over there, but you hoped that Jason would be able to fix it before it was too late. There was still a definite feeling of fear that he might get hurt, but you trusted him. He was trained and he was smart. He would be okay. Just as you were going to hang up, Jason’s voice suddenly cut you off. 

“Wait, Y/N,” he called out. You hummed in response, letting him know you were still listening. There was a slight hesitation before he spoke, this time sounding quieter. “I know I messed everything up but…please don’t give up on me.” 

The thought of leaving him had never even crossed your mind. Despite everything he did that night, you still loved him. He wasn’t evil or villainous in any way. He was hurt and confused. Not only that, but he knew what he had done was wrong. He wanted to fix it. No matter how clouded with anger it was, he still had one of the purest hearts you’d ever known. 

“I would never."


End file.
